Lots
has been written about this machine on the pinball newsgroup
REC.GAMES.PINBALL. If you don't have a newsreader, click on this
link to go to Google
Groups archive of LOTR posts.
You'll see what I mean!

Once again, I've gone out on
the preverbal limb and bought a NIB machine sight unseen. So far my record
is 1-1, with Monopoly being a big win (I know I'm in the minority on this one,
but I love it!), and RCT being a bust. When I sold RCT a few months back,
I think it had less than 100 plays on it, and I took a bath on it. Why buy
a NIB machine when you can wait and then pick up one cheap from suckers like me
who buy them new? Its kind of like buying a new car versus a used car, the
new game has that "new car smell", its clean, no wear on the
playfield, no nicks, just a pristine playfield! LOTR had been rumored for
over 2 years and has a theme that is just made for pinball, and with my older
daughter being a big LOTR fan, I decided to go for it. The unexpected sale
of my Dr. Who and Road Kings (an unsolicited sale on my part, somebody just
showed up on my doorstep with cash in hand looking for pinball machines!) sealed
the deal.

Is
this how a King arrives?

My two previous NIB
purchases showed up on big 18 wheel trucks (see photo below of RCT's
arrival). We would then transfer the game from the truck to the bed of my
pickup, then I got to drive the game down the final 300' of the driveway
to the house. No such ceremonious entry for this lord
however! I received a call from my daughter while at work "hey
dad, your pinball machine is here, they just dropped it off outside of the
garage." While a heck of a lot easier than the ride in the back
of the pickup, where is the ceremony in that?

Getting
it downstairs!

OK,
so where are the pictures of the game going down the basement
stairs? Well, we were too busy try to get the game down to take any
photos, and I think my wife would rather not watch in case for some
unknown reason the game got loose and came down by itself! I must
admit however, that a game in a carton is much easier to get down the
stairs than an unboxed machine. I pity those lost souls who are too
anxious to look at their new machine that they take it out of the box on
the driveway, then attempt to get it up or down some stairs!

Since
all pinball boxes basically look alike, here is a shot of when we
were taking Monopoly down the stairs, just makes it through the
door! In case you're wondering, the machine will make it
through a 30" opening with the door removed.

Real
men don't read instructions

OK,
well at least I glanced at them....

Out
of the box!

If
you're smart enough to lay the box down with the side labeled "truck
this side" on the floor, then its an easy job to get the machine
out. It really is a one person set-up, but having a friend handy to
take pictures helps out!

This
thing is heavy!

When
the machine showed up, I tried to truck it into the garage until I could
get help bringing the machine down. Well, tried is the opportune
word here. I couldn't get the truck back with the machine on it (I
blame it on the cheap hand truck...) I would up just muscling it
into the garage.

I felt better when Tony
P. was moving the box around and said "boy, is thing heavy or
what?". I needed to use the basement post for leverage to get
it out of the box!

Setting
Up!

Tony P.
took over and got the legs on.

.

Raising
the Backbox!

The
camera got to see the backglass before I did!

And
finally the first balled gets played...

Nothing
like game 1, ball 1 on your new machine! No issues on this machine,
just a great game!